Dallas County aims to spend $32 million in taxpayer money to build a government center in Mesquite by 2024.
The 53,550-square-foot, two-story facility will be located at 500 South Galloway Ave. and will house a tax department, Justice of the Peace, community room, office spaces, and a secured parking lot.
“The County’s Mesquite Government Center project is moving forward,” Jonathon Bazan, assistant county administrator for Dallas County, told The Dallas Express. “Construction is expected to begin in March [2023].”
Bazan added that the commissioners court awarded the design-build contract to Suffolk Construction on December 7, 2021.
The county will provide for the construction through taxpayer funds. Dallas County maintains government centers in other suburbs, such as Grand Prairie and Garland.
Currently, there is only one smaller Dallas County government office space in Mesquite — a town with an estimated population of more than 152,000, although partially split between Dallas County and Kaufman County.
The additional office space will naturally increase the county’s regional footprint. The Dallas Express reached out to the county government for additional comment but had received no response at the time of publication.
The new development came as the Dallas County Commissioners Court is preparing for its last meeting of 2022, which was held on Tuesday. When the new year starts, the court will be composed entirely of Democrats.
Incumbent Commissioner J.J. Koch, the only Republican currently on the court, was defeated in the November elections by Democrat Andrew Sommerman, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Sommerman earned 54% of the vote in District 2, while Koch earned 46%. Koch had served on the commissioners court since 2018. Redistricting in 2021 reportedly made District 2 significantly more Democratic.
“The biggest thing was the way the lines were drawn,” Koch said. “It just changed the composition of the district very dramatically.”
The district map for 2018 indicated that District 2 was primarily Republican, and in that year’s elections, Koch maintained his seat with nearly 52% of the vote.